Chapter XV – Genesis

KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES

These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. – REVELATION.

CHAPTER XV – GENESIS

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And I appeared unto Abraham,, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the

name of God Almighty; but by My name Jehovah was I not known to

them. – EXODUS.

All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything

made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of

men. – JOHN.

Spiritual interpretation

1 SCIENTIFIC interpretation of the Scriptures prop-

erly starts with the beginning of the Old Testa-

3 ment, chiefly because the spiritual import of

the Word, in its earliest articulations, often

seems so smothered by the immediate context as to

6 require explication; whereas the New Testament narra-

tives are clearer and come nearer the heart. Jesus il-

lumines them, showing the poverty of mortal existence,

9 but richly recompensing human want and woe with

spiritual gain. The incarnation of Truth, that amplifi-

cation of wonder and glory which angels could only

12 whisper and which God illustrated by light and har-

mony, is consonant with ever-present Love. So-called

mystery and miracle, which subserve the end of natural

15 good, are explained by that Love for whose rest the

weary ones sigh when needing something more native

to their immortal cravings than the history of perpetual

18 evil.

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Spiritual overture

1 A second necessity for beginning with Genesis is that

the living and real prelude of the older Scriptures is so

3 brief that it would almost seem, from the

preponderance of unreality in the entire nar-

rative, as if reality did not predominate over unreality,

6 the light over the dark, the straight line of Spirit over

the mortal deviations and inverted images of the creator

and His creation.

Deflection of being

9 Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history

of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This

deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves to

12 suggest the proper reflection of God and the

spiritual actuality of man, as given in the first chapter

of Genesis. Even thus the crude forms of human thought

15 take on higher symbols and significations, when scien-

tifically Christian views of the universe appear, illuminat-

ing time with the glory of eternity.

18 In the following exegesis, each text is followed by its

spiritual interpretation according to the teachings of Chris-

tian Science.

21 EXEGESIS

Genesis i. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven

and the earth.

Ideas and identities

24 The infinite has no beginning. This word beginning

is employed to signify the only, – that is, the eternal ver-

ity and unity of God and man, including

27 the universe. The creative Principle – Life,

Truth, and Love – is God. The universe reflects God.

There is but one creator and one creation. This crea-

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1 tion consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their

identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and

3 forever reflected. These ideas range from the infini-

tesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons

and daughters of God.

6 Genesis i. 2. And the earth was without form, and void;

and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the

spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Spiritual harmony

9 The divine Principle and idea constitute spiritual har-

mony, – heaven and eternity. In the universe of Truth,

matter is unknown. No supposition of error

12 enters there. Divine Science, the Word of

God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, “God

is All-in-all,” and the light of ever-present Love illumines

15 the universe. Hence the eternal wonder, – that infinite

space is peopled with God’s ideas, reflecting Him in

countless spiritual forms.

18 Genesis i. 3. And God said, Let there be light: and

there was light.

Mind’s idea faultless

Immortal and divine Mind presents the idea of God:

21 first, in light; second, in reflection; third, in spiritual and

immortal forms of beauty and goodness. But

this Mind creates no element nor symbol of

24 discord and decay. God creates neither erring thought,

mortal life, mutable truth, nor variable love.

Genesis i. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good:

27 and God divided the light from the darkness.

God, Spirit, dwelling in infinite light and harmony

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1 from which emanates the true idea, is never reflected by

aught but the good.

3 Genesis i. 5. And God called the light Day, and the

darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morn-

ing were the first day.

Light preceding the sun

6 All questions as to the divine creation being both

spiritual and material are answered in this passage, for

though solar beams are not yet included in

9 the record of creation, still there is light. This

light is not from the sun nor from volcanic flames, but it

is the revelation of Truth and of spiritual ideas. This

12 also shows that there is no place where God’s light is not

seen, since Truth, Life, and Love fill immensity and are

ever-present. Was not this a revelation instead of a

15 creation?

Evenings and mornings

The successive appearing of God’s ideas is represented

as taking place on so many evenings and mornings, –

18 words which indicate, in the absence of solar

time, spiritually clearer views of Him, views

which are not implied by material darkness and dawn.

21 Here we have the explanation of another passage of

Scripture, that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand

years.” The rays of infinite Truth, when gathered into

24 the focus of ideas, bring light instantaneously, whereas

a thousand years of human doctrines, hypotheses, and

vague conjectures emit no such effulgence.

Spirit versus darkness

27 Did infinite Mind create matter, and call it light?

Spirit is light, and the contradiction of Spirit is matter,

darkness, and darkness obscures light. Mate-

30 rial sense is nothing but a supposition of the

absence of Spirit. No solar rays nor planetary revolutions

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1 form the day of Spirit. Immortal Mind makes its own

record, but mortal mind, sleep, dreams, sin, disease, and

3 death have no record in the first chapter of Genesis.

Genesis i. 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in

the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from

6 the waters.

Spiritual firmament

Spiritual understanding, by which human conception,

material sense, is separated from Truth, is the firmament.

9 The divine Mind, not matter, creates all iden-

tities, and they are forms of Mind, the ideas of

Spirit apparent only as Mind, never as mindless matter

12 nor the so-called material senses.

Genesis i. 7. And God made the firmament, and divided

the waters which were under the firmament from the waters

15 which were above the firmament: and it was so.

Understanding imparted

Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts con-

sciousness and leads into all truth. The Psalmist saith:

18 “The Lord on high is mightier than the noise

of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of

the sea.” Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual

21 good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between

the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds

Mind, – Life, Truth, and Love, – and demonstrates the

24 divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in

Christian Science.

Original reflected

This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result

27 of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things

brought to light. God’s ideas reflect the im-

mortal, unerring, and infinite. The mortal,

30 erring, and finite are human beliefs, which apportion to

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1 themselves a task impossible for them, that of distinguish-

ing between the false and the true. Objects utterly un-

3 like the original do not reflect that original. Therefore

matter, not being the reflection of Spirit, has no real en-

tity. Understanding is a quality of God, a quality which

6 separates Christian Science from supposition and makes

Truth final.

Genesis i. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven.

9 And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Exalted thought

Through divine Science, Spirit, God, unites under-

standing to eternal harmony. The calm and exalted

12 thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace.

Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each

successive stage of progress.

15 Genesis i. 9. And God said, Let the waters under the

heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry

land appear: and it was so.

Unfolding of thoughts

18 Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their

proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts,

even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose

21 in order that the purpose may appear.

Genesis i. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and

the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and

24 God saw that it was good.

Spirit names and blesses

Here the human concept and divine idea seem con-

fused by the translator, but they are not so in the scien-

27 tifically Christian meaning of the text. Upon

Adam devolved the pleasurable task of find-

ing names for all material things, but Adam has not yet

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1 appeared in the narrative. In metaphor, the dry land

illustrates the absolute formations instituted by Mind,

3 while water symbolizes the elements of Mind. Spirit duly

feeds and clothes every object, as it appears in the line

of spiritual creation, thus tenderly expressing the father-

6 hood and motherhood of God. Spirit names and blesses

all. Without natures particularly defined, objects and

subjects would be obscure, and creation would be full of

9 nameless offspring, – wanderers from the parent Mind,

strangers in a tangled wilderness.

Genesis i. 11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth

12 grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding

fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth:

and it was so.

Divine propagation

15 The universe of Spirit reflects the creative power of

the divine Principle, or Life, which reproduces the multi-

tudinous forms of Mind and governs the mul-

18 tiplication of the compound idea man. The

tree and herb do not yield fruit because of any propagat-

ing power of their own, but because they reflect the Mind

21 which includes all. A material world implies a mortal

mind and man a creator. The scientific divine creation

declares immortal Mind and the universe created by God.

Ever-appearing creation

24 Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the men-

tal molecule to infinity. This divine Principle of all

expresses Science and art throughout His

27 creation, and the immortality of man and the

universe. Creation is ever appearing, and must ever con-

tinue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source.

30 Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas mate-

rial. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall

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1 to the level of a human or material belief, called mortal

man. But the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind

3 is All and reproduces all – as Mind is the multiplier,

and Mind’s infinite idea, man and the universe, is the

product. The only intelligence or substance of a thought,

6 a seed, or a flower is God, the creator of it. Mind is the

Soul of all. Mind is Life, Truth, and Love which gov-

erns all.

9 Genesis i. 12. And the earth brought forth grass, and

herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding

fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw

12 that it was good.

Mind’s pure thought

God determines the gender of His own ideas. Gen-

der is mental, not material. The seed within itself is

15 the pure thought emanating from divine

Mind. The feminine gender is not yet ex-

pressed in the text. Gender means simply kind or sort,

18 and does not necessarily refer either to masculinity or

femininity. The word is not confined to sexuality, and

grammars always recognize a neuter gender, neither

21 male nor female. The Mind or intelligence of produc-

tion names the female gender last in the ascending order

of creation. The intelligent individual idea, be it male

24 or female, rising from the lesser to the greater, unfolds

the infinitude of Love.

Genesis i. 13. And the evening and the morning were

27 the third day.

Rising to the light

The third stage in the order of Christian Science is an

important one to the human thought, letting in the light

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1 of spiritual understanding. This period corresponds to

the resurrection, when Spirit is discerned to be the Life of

3 all, and the deathless Life, or Mind, dependent

upon no material organization. Our Master

reappeared to his students, – to their apprehension he

6 rose from the grave, – on the third day of his ascending

thought, and so presented to them the certain sense of

eternal Life.

9 Genesis i. 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the

firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night;

and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days,

12 and years.

Rarefaction of thought

Spirit creates no other than heavenly or celestial bodies,

but the stellar universe is no more celestial than our earth.

15 This text gives the idea of the rarefaction of

thought as it ascends higher. God forms and

peoples the universe. The light of spiritual understand-

18 ing gives gleams of the infinite only, even as nebulae indi-

cate the immensity of space.

Divine nature appearing

So-called mineral, vegetable, and animal substances

21 are no more contingent now on time or material struc-

ture than they were when “the morning stars

sang together.” Mind made the “plant of

24 the field before it was in the earth.” The periods of

spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind’s

creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness

27 – yea, the divine nature – appear in man and the uni-

verse never to disappear.

Spiritual ideas apprehended

Knowing the Science of creation, in which all is Mind

30 and its ideas, Jesus rebuked the material thought of his

fellow-countrymen: “Ye can discern the face of the

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1 sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?”

How much more should we seek to apprehend the spirit-

3 ual ideas of God, than to dwell on the objects

of sense! To discern the rhythm of Spirit

and to be holy, thought must be purely spiritual.

6 Genesis i. 15. And let them be for lights in the firma-

ment of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it

was so.

9 Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose

“light shall we see light;” and this illumination is re-

flected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn

12 away from a false material sense.

Genesis i. 16. And God made two great lights; the

greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the

15 night: He made the stars also.

Geology a failure

The sun is a metaphorical representation of Soul out-

side the body, giving existence and intelligence to the

18 universe. Love alone can impart the limit-

less idea of infinite Mind. Geology has never

explained the earth’s formations; it cannot explain them.

21 There is no Scriptural allusion to solar light until time has

been already divided into evening and morning; and the

allusion to fluids (Genesis i. 2) indicates a supposed for-

24 mation of matter by the resolving of fluids into solids,

analogous to the suppositional resolving of thoughts into

material things.

Spiritual subdivision

27 Light is a symbol of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love,

and not a vitalizing property of matter. Sci-

ence reveals only one Mind, and this one shin-

30 ing by its own light and governing the universe, including

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1 man, in perfect harmony. This Mind forms ideas, its

own images, subdivides and radiates their borrowed light,

3 intelligence, and so explains the Scripture phrase, “whose

seed is in itself.” Thus God’s ideas “multiply and re-

plenish the earth.” The divine Mind supports the sub-

6 limity, magnitude, and infinitude of spiritual creation.

Genesis i. 17, 18. And God set them in the firmament of

the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over

9 the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the

darkness: and God saw that it was good.

Darkness scattered

In divine Science, which is the seal of Deity and has

12 the impress of heaven, God is revealed as in-

finite light. In the eternal Mind, no night is

there.

15 Genesis i. 19. And the evening and the morning were

the fourth day.

The changing glow and full effulgence of God’s infi-

18 nite ideas, images, mark the periods of progress.

Genesis i. 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth

abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl

21 that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of

heaven.

Soaring aspirations

To mortal mind, the universe is liquid, solid, and a‰ri-

24 form. Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand

for solid and grand ideas. Animals and mor-

tals metaphorically present the gradation of

27 mortal thought, rising in the scale of intelligence, taking

form in masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. The

fowls, which fly above the earth in the open firmament

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1 of heaven, correspond to aspirations soaring beyond and

above corporeality to the understanding of the incorporeal

3 and divine Principle, Love.

Genesis i. 21. And God created great whales, and every

living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth

6 abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after

his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Seraphic symbols

Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power,

9 and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These an-

gels of His presence, which have the holiest

charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of

12 Mind, and consequently reproduce their own character-

istics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do

know that their natures are allied to God’s nature; and

15 spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yet

subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding.

Genesis i. 22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruit-

18 ful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let

fowl multiply in the earth.

Multiplication of pure ideas

Spirit blesses the multiplication of its own pure and

21 perfect ideas. From the infinite elements of the one

Mind emanate all form, color, quality, and

quantity, and these are mental, both primarily

24 and secondarily. Their spiritual nature is discerned only

through the spiritual senses. Mortal mind inverts the true

likeness, and confers animal names and natures upon its

27 own misconceptions. Ignorant of the origin and opera-

tions of mortal mind, – that is, ignorant of itself, – this

so-called mind puts forth its own qualities, and claims

30 God as their author; albeit God is ignorant of the ex-

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1 istence of both this mortal mentality, so-called, and its

claim, for the claim usurps the deific prerogatives and is

3 an attempted infringement on infinity.

Genesis i. 23. And the evening and the morning were

the fifth day.

Spiritual spheres

6 Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of

Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. To

material sense, this divine universe is dim and

9 distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight;

but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light.

In the record, time is not yet measured by solar revolutions,

12 and the motions and reflections of deific power cannot be

apprehended until divine Science becomes the interpreter.

Genesis i. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth

15 the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing,

and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

Continuity of thoughts

Spirit diversifies, classifies, and individualizes all

18 thoughts, which are as eternal as the Mind

conceiving them; but the intelligence, exist-

ence, and continuity of all individuality remain in God,

21 who is the divinely creative Principle thereof.

Genesis i. 25. And God made the beast of the earth after

his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that

24 creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that

it was good.

God’s thoughts are spiritual realities

God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are

27 spiritual realities. So-called mortal mind – being non-

existent and consequently not within the range of im-

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1 mortal existence – could not by simulating deific power

invert the divine creation, and afterwards recreate per-

3 sons or things upon its own plane, since noth-

ing exists beyond the range of all-inclusive

infinity, in which and of which God is the

6 sole creator. Mind, joyous in strength, dwells in the

realm of Mind. Mind’s infinite ideas run and dis-

port themselves. In humility they climb the heights of

9 holiness.

Qualities of thought

Moral courage is “the lion of the tribe of Juda,” the

king of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in

12 the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the open

field, or rests in “green pastures, . . . beside

the still waters.” In the figurative transmission from the

15 divine thought to the human, diligence, promptness, and

perseverance are likened to “the cattle upon a thousand

hills.” They carry the baggage of stern resolve, and

18 keep pace with highest purpose. Tenderness accompa-

nies all the might imparted by Spirit. The individ-

uality created by God is not carnivorous, as witness the

21 millennial estate pictured by Isaiah: –

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,

And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

24      And the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together;

And a little child shall lead them.

Creatures of God useful

Understanding the control which Love held over all,

27 Daniel felt safe in the lions’ den, and Paul proved the

viper to be harmless. All of God’s creatures

moving in the harmony of Science, are harm-

30 less, useful, indestructible. A realization of this grand

verity was a source of strength to the ancient worthies.

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1 It supports Christian healing, and enables its possessor

to emulate the example of Jesus. “And God saw that

3 it was good.”

The serpent harmless

Patience is symbolized by the tireless worm, creeping

over lofty summits, persevering in its intent. The ser-

6 pent of God’s creating is neither subtle nor

poisonous, but is a wise idea, charming in its

adroitness, for Love’s ideas are subject to the Mind which

9 forms them, – the power which changeth the serpent

into a staff.

Genesis i. 26. And God said, Let us make man in our

12 image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over

the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over

the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping

15 thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Elohistic plurality

The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe.

The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of

18 Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor

does it imply three persons in one. It relates

to the oneness, the triunity of Life, Truth, and Love.

21 “Let them have dominion.” Man is the family name

for all ideas, – the sons and daughters of God. All that

God imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting good-

24 ness and power.

Reflected likeness

Your mirrored reflection is your own image or like-

ness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also.

27 If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in

accord with yours. Now compare man before

the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror

30 divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note

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1 how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection

to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in

3 the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of

God. The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love,

which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation;

6 and when we subordinate the false testimony of the

corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see

this true likeness and reflection everywhere.

Love imparts beauty

9 God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life

is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in

goodness, which impart their own peace and

12 permanence. Love, redolent with unselfish-

ness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath

our feet silently exclaims, “The meek shall inherit the

15 earth.” The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to

heaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. The

sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the

18 prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the

flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth. Man,

made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God’s domin-

21 ion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent

and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality,

the infinite Father-Mother God.

24 Genesis i. 27. So God created man in His own image,

in the image of God created He him; male and female

created He them.

Ideal man and woman

27 To emphasize this momentous thought, it is repeated

that God made man in His own image, to reflect the

divine Spirit. It follows that man is a generic

30 term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter gen-

ders are human concepts. In one of the ancient lan-

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1 guages the word for man is used also as the synonym of

mind. This definition has been weakened by anthropo-

3 morphism, or a humanization of Deity. The word an-

thropomorphic, in such a phrase as “an anthropomorphic

God,” is derived from two Greek words, signifying man

6 and form, and may be defined as a mortally mental at-

tempt to reduce Deity to corporeality. The life-giving

quality of Mind is Spirit, not matter. The ideal man

9 corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth.

The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. In

divine Science, we have not as much authority for con-

12 sidering God masculine, as we have for considering

Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of

Deity.

Divine personality

15 The world believes in many persons; but if God is per-

sonal, there is but one person, because there is but one

God. His personality can only be reflected,

18 not transmitted. God has countless ideas, and

they all have one Principle and parentage. The only

proper symbol of God as person is Mind’s infinite ideal.

21 What is this ideal? Who shall behold it? This ideal

is God’s own image, spiritual and infinite. Even eternity

can never reveal the whole of God, since there is no limit

24 to infinitude or to its reflections.

Genesis i. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto

them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,

27 and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea,

and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing

that moveth upon the earth.

Birthright of man

30 Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to

multiply, – to manifest His power. Man is not made

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1 to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not sub-

jection. He is lord of the belief in earth

3 and heaven, – himself subordinate alone to

his Maker. This is the Science of being.

Genesis i. 29, 30. And God said, Behold, I have given

6 you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all

the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree

yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every

9 beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to

everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is

life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it

12 was so.

Assistance in brotherhood

God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the

greater, and in return, the higher always protects the

?

15 lower. The rich in spirit help the poor in

one grand brotherhood, all having the same

Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth

18 his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in

another’s good. Love giveth to the least spiritual idea

might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through

21 all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied

expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality –

infinite Life, Truth, and Love.

24 Genesis i. 31. And God saw everything that He had

made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and

the morning were the sixth day.

Perfection of creation

27 The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends and ex-

presses all, and all must therefore be as perfect is the

divine Principle is perfect. Nothing is new to Spirit.

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1 Nothing can be novel to eternal Mind, the author of all

things, who from all eternity knoweth His own ideas.

3 Deity was satisfied with His work. How could

He be otherwise, since the spiritual creation

was the outgrowth, the emanation, of His infinite self-

6 containment and immortal wisdom?

Genesis ii. 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were

finished, and all the host of them.

Infinity measureless

9 Thus the ideas of God in universal being are complete

and forever expressed, for Science reveals infinity and

the fatherhood and motherhood of Love. Hu-

12 man capacity is slow to discern and to grasp

God’s creation and the divine power and presence which

go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals

15 can never know the infinite, until they throw off the old

man and reach the spiritual image and likeness. What

can fathom infinity! How shall we declare Him, till,

18 in the language of the apostle, “we all come in the unity

of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto

a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the ful-

21 ness of Christ”?

Genesis ii. 2. And on the seventh day God ended His

work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh

24 day from all His work which He had made.

Resting in holy work

God rests in action. Imparting has not impoverished,

can never impoverish, the divine Mind. No

27 exhaustion follows the action of this Mind,

according to the apprehension of divine Science. The

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1 highest and sweetest rest, even from a human standpoint,

is in holy work.

Love and man coexistent

3 Unfathomable Mind is expressed. The depth, breadth,

height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all

space. That is enough! Human language

6 can repeat only an infinitesimal part of what

exists. The absolute ideal, man, is no more seen nor

comprehended by mortals, than is His infinite Principle,

9 Love. Principle and its idea, man, are coexistent and

eternal. The numerals of infinity, called seven days, can

never be reckoned according to the calendar of time.

12 These days will appear as mortality disappears, and they

will reveal eternity, newness of Life, in which all sense of

error forever disappears and thought accepts the divine

15 infinite calculus.

Genesis ii. 4, 5. These are the generations of the heavens

and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the

18 Lord God [Jehovah] made the earth and the heavens, and

every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every

herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God [Jehovah]

21 had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not

a man to till the ground.

Growth is from Mind

Here is the emphatic declaration that God creates all

24 through Mind, not through matter, – that the plant

grows, not because of seed or soil, but because

growth is the eternal mandate of Mind. Mor-

27 tal thought drops into the ground, but the immortal creat-

ing thought is from above, not from beneath. Because

Mind makes all, there is nothing left to be made by a

30 lower power. Spirit acts through the Science of Mind,

never causing man to till the ground, but making him

PAGE 521

1 superior to the soil. Knowledge of this lifts man above

the sod, above earth and its environments, to conscious

3 spiritual harmony and eternal being.

Spiritual narrative

Here the inspired record closes its narrative of being

that is without beginning or end. All that is made is

6 the work of God, and all is good. We leave

this brief, glorious history of spiritual creation

(as stated in the first chapter of Genesis) in the hands of

9 God, not of man, in the keeping of Spirit, not matter, –

joyfully acknowledging now and forever God’s supremacy,

omnipotence, and omnipresence.

12 The harmony and immortality of man are intact. We

should look away from the opposite supposition that man

is created materially, and turn our gaze to the spiritual

15 record of creation, to that which should be engraved on

the understanding and heart “with the point of a diamond”

and the pen of an angel.

18 The reader will naturally ask if there is nothing more

about creation in the book of Genesis. Indeed there is,

but the continued account is mortal and material.

21 Genesis ii. 6. But there went up a mist from the earth,

and watered the whole face of the ground.

The story of error

The Science and truth of the divine creation have been

24 presented in the verses already considered, and now the

opposite error, a material view of creation, is

to be set forth. The second chapter of Gene-

27 sis contains a statement of this material view of God and

the universe, a statement which is the exact opposite of

scientific truth as before recorded. The history of error

30 or matter, if veritable, would set aside the omnipotence

PAGE 522

1 of Spirit; but it is the false history in contradistinction

to the true.

The two records

3 The Science of the first record proves the falsity of

the second. If one is true, the other is false, for they are

antagonistic. The first record assigns all

6 might and government to God, and endows

man out of God’s perfection and power. The second

record chronicles man as mutable and mortal, – as hav-

9 ing broken away from Deity and as revolving in an orbit

of his own. Existence, separate from divinity, Science

explains as impossible.

12 This second record unmistakably gives the history of

error in its externalized forms, called life and intelli-

gence in matter. It records pantheism, opposed to the

15 supremacy of divine Spirit; but this state of things is

declared to be temporary and this man to be mortal, –

dust returning to dust.

Erroneous representation

18 In this erroneous theory, matter takes the place of Spirit.

Matter is represented as the life-giving principle of the

earth. Spirit is represented as entering mat-

21 ter in order to create man. God’s glowing

denunciations of man when not found in His

image, the likeness of Spirit, convince reason and coincide

24 with revelation in declaring this material creation false.

Hypothetical reversal

This latter part of the second chapter of Genesis, which

portrays Spirit as supposedly cooperating with matter in

27 constructing the universe, is based on some

hypothesis of error, for the Scripture just pre-

ceding declares God’s work to be finished. Does Life,

30 Truth, and Love produce death, error, and hatred? Does

the creator condemn His own creation? Does the un-

erring Principle of divine law change or repent? It can-

PAGE 523

1 not be so. Yet one might so judge from an unintelligent

perusal of the Scriptural account now under comment.

Mist, or false claim

3 Because of its false basis, the mist of obscurity evolved

by error deepens the false claim, and finally declares that

God knows error and that error can improve

6 His creation. Although presenting the exact

opposite of Truth, the lie claims to be truth. The crea-

tions of matter arise from a mist or false claim, or from

9 mystification, and not from the firmament, or under-

standing, which God erects between the true and false.

In error everything comes from beneath, not from above.

12 All is material myth, instead of the reflection of

Spirit.

Distinct documents

It may be worth while here to remark that, according

15 to the best scholars, there are clear evidences of two dis-

tinct documents in the early part of the book of

Genesis. One is called the Elohistic, because

18 the Supreme Being is therein called Elohim. The other

document is called the Jehovistic, because Deity therein is

always called Jehovah, – or Lord God, as our common

21 version translates it.

Jehovah or Elohim

Throughout the first chapter of Genesis and in three

verses of the second, – in what we understand to be the

24 spiritually scientific account of creation, – it is

Elohim (God) who creates. From the fourth

verse of chapter two to chapter five, the creator is called

27 Jehovah, or the Lord. The different accounts become

more and more closely intertwined to the end of chapter

twelve, after which the distinction is not definitely trace-

30 able. In the historic parts of the Old Testament, it is

usually Jehovah, peculiarly the divine sovereign of the

Hebrew people, who is referred to.

PAGE 524

Gods of the heathen

1 The idolatry which followed this material mythology is

seen in the Phoenician worship of Baal, in the Moabitish

3 god Chemosh, in the Moloch of the Amorites,

in the Hindoo Vishnu, in the Greek Aphro-

dite, and in a thousand other so-called deities.

Jehovah a tribal deity

6 It was also found among the Israelites, who constantly

went after “strange gods.” They called the Supreme

Being by the national name of Jehovah. In

9 that name of Jehovah, the true idea of God

seems almost lost. God becomes “a man of war,” a

tribal god to be worshipped, rather than Love, the divine

12 Principle to be lived and loved.

Genesis ii. 7. And the Lord God [Jehovah] formed man

of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils

15 the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Creation reversed

Did the divine and infinite Principle become a finite

deity, that he should now be called Jehovah? With

l8 a single command, Mind had made man,

both male and female. How then could a

material organization become the basis of man? How

21 could the non-intelligent become the medium of Mind,

and error be the enunciator of Truth? Matter is not

the reflection of Spirit, yet God is reflected in all His

24 creation. Is this addition to His creation real or un-

real? Is it the truth, or is it a lie concerning man and

God?

27 It must be a lie, for God presently curses the ground.

Could Spirit evolve its opposite, matter, and give matter

ability to sin and suffer? Is Spirit, God, injected into

30 dust, and eventually ejected at the demand of matter?

Does Spirit enter dust, and lose therein the divine nature

PAGE 525

1 and omnipotence? Does Mind, God, enter matter to be-

come there a mortal sinner, animated by the breath of

3 God? In this narrative, the validity of matter is opposed,

not the validity of Spirit or Spirit’s creations. Man re-

flects God; mankind represents the Adamic race, and is

6 a human, not a divine, creation.

Definitions of man

The following are some of the equivalents of the term

man in different languages. In the Saxon, mankind, a

9 woman, any one; in the Welsh, that which rises

up, – the primary sense being image, form; in

the Hebrew, image, similitude; in the Icelandic, mind.

12 The following translation is from the Icelandic: –

And God said, Let us make man after our mind and

our likeness; and God shaped man after His mind; after

15 God’s mind shaped He Him; and He shaped them male and

female.

No baneful creation

In the Gospel of John, it is declared that all things were

18 made through the Word of God, “and without Him [the

logos, or word] was not anything made that

was made.” Everything good or worthy, God

21 made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not

make, – hence its unreality. In the Science of Genesis

we read that He saw everything which He had made,

24 “and, behold, it was very good.” The corporeal senses

declare otherwise; and if we give the same heed to the

history of error as to the records of truth, the Scriptural

27 record of sin and death favors the false conclusion of the

material senses. Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed

as devoid of reality as they are of good, God.

30 Genesis ii. 9. And out of the ground made the Lord God

[Jehovah] to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight,

PAGE 526

1 and good for food; the tree of life also, in the midst of the

garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Contradicting first creation

3 The previous and more scientific record of creation

declares that God made “every plant of the field be-

fore it was in the earth.” This opposite

6 declaration, this statement that life issues

from matter, contradicts the teaching of the first chap-

ter, – namely, that all Life is God. Belief is less than

9 understanding. Belief involves theories of material hear-

ing, sight, touch, taste, and smell, termed the five senses.

The appetites and passions, sin, sickness, and death,

12 follow in the train of this error of a belief in intelligent

matter.

Record of error

The first mention of evil is in the legendary Scriptural

15 text in the second chapter of Genesis. God pronounced

good all that He created, and the Scriptures

declare that He created all. The “tree of

18 life” stands for the idea of Truth, and the sword which

guards it is the type of divine Science. The “tree of

knowledge” stands for the erroneous doctrine that the

21 knowledge of evil is as real, hence as God-bestowed, as

the knowledge of good. Was evil instituted through God,

Love? Did He create this fruit-bearer of sin in contra-

24 diction of the first creation? This second biblical account

is a picture of error throughout.

Genesis ii. 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] took the

27 man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and

to keep it.

Garden of Eden

The name Eden, according to Cruden, means pleasure,

30 delight. In this text Eden stands for the mortal, mate-

PAGE 527

1 rial body. God could not put Mind into matter nor in-

finite Spirit into finite form to dress it and

3 keep it, – to make it beautiful or to cause it

to live and grow. Man is God’s reflection, needing no

cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete.

6 Genesis ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God [Jehovah] com-

manded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou

mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good

9 and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou

eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

No temptation from God

Here the metaphor represents God, Love, as tempting

12 man, but the Apostle James says: “God cannot be

tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any

man.” It is true that a knowledge of evil would

15 make man mortal. It is plain also that mate-

rial perception, gathered from the corporeal senses, consti-

tutes evil and mortal knowledge. But is it true that God,

18 good, made “the tree of life” to be the tree of death to His

own creation? Has evil the reality of good? Evil is un-

real because it is a lie, – false in every statement.

21 Genesis ii. 19. And out of the ground the Lord God

[Jehovah] formed every beast of the field, and every fowl

of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he

24 would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living

creature, that was the name thereof.

Creation’s counterfeit

Here the lie represents God as repeating creation, but

27 doing so materially, not spiritually, and ask-

ing a prospective sinner to help Him. Is the

Supreme Being retrograding, and is man giving up his

30 dignity? Was it requisite for the formation of man

PAGE 528

1 that dust should become sentient, when all being is the

reflection of the eternal Mind, and the record declares

3 that God has already created man, both male and

female? That Adam gave the name and nature of

animals, is solely mythological and material. It can-

6 not be true that man was ordered to create man anew

in partnership with God; this supposition was a dream,

a myth.

9 Genesis ii. 21, 22. And the Lord God [Jehovah, Yawah]

caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and

He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead

12 thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God [Jehovah] had

taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto

the man.

Hypnotic surgery

15 Here falsity, error, credits Truth, God, with inducing

a sleep or hypnotic state in Adam in order to perform a

surgical operation on him and thereby create

18 woman. This is the first record of magnet-

ism. Beginning creation with darkness instead of light,

– materially rather than spiritually, – error now simu-

21 lates the work of Truth, mocking Love and declar-

ing what great things error has done. Beholding the

creations of his own dream and calling them real and

24 God-given, Adam – alias error – gives them names.

Afterwards he is supposed to become the basis of the

creation of woman and of his own kind, calling them

27 mankind, – that is, a kind of man.

Mental midwifery

But according to this narrative, surgery was first per-

formed mentally and without instruments;

30 and this may be a useful hint to the medical

faculty. Later in human history, when the forbidden

PAGE 529

1 fruit was bringing forth fruit of its own kind, there

came a suggestion of change in the modus operandi, –

3 that man should be born of woman, not woman again

taken from man. It came about, also, that instruments

were needed to assist the birth of mortals. The first

6 system of suggestive obstetrics has changed. Another

change will come as to the nature and origin of man,

and this revelation will destroy the dream of existence,

9 reinstate reality, usher in Science and the glorious fact

of creation, that both man and woman proceed from

God and are His eternal children, belonging to no lesser

12 parent.

Genesis iii. 1-3. Now the serpent was more subtle than

any beast of the field which the Lord God [Jehovah] had

15 made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said,

Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the

woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of

18 the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is

in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat

of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Mythical serpent

21 Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the

children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the

metaphor only as evil. We have nothing in the

24 animal kingdom which represents the species

described, – a talking serpent, – and should rejoice that

evil, by whatever figure presented, contradicts itself and

27 has neither origin nor support in Truth and good. Seeing

this, we should have faith to fight all claims of evil, be-

cause we know that they are worthless and unreal.

Error or Adam

30 Adam, the synonym for error, stands for a belief of

material mind. He begins his reign over man some-

PAGE 530

1 what mildly, but he increases in falsehood and his days

become shorter. In this development, the im-

3 mortal, spiritual law of Truth is made manifest

as forever opposed to mortal, material sense.

Divine providence

In divine Science, man is sustained by God, the divine

6 Principle of being. The earth, at God’s command, brings

forth food for man’s use. Knowing this, Jesus

once said, “Take no thought for your life,

9 what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink,” – presuming

not on the prerogative of his creator, but recognizing God,

the Father and Mother of all, as able to feed and clothe

12 man as He doth the lilies.

Genesis iii. 4, 5. And the serpent said unto the woman,

Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day

15 ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall

be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Error’s assumption

This myth represents error as always asserting its su-

18 periority over truth, giving the lie to divine Science and

saying, through the material senses: “I can

open your eyes. I can do what God has not

21 done for you. Bow down to me and have another god.

Only admit that I am real, that sin and sense are more

pleasant to the eyes than spiritual Life, more to be de-

24 sired than Truth, and I shall know you, and you will be

mine.” Thus Spirit and flesh war.

Scriptural allegory

The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream

27 has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the

dreamer and dream are one, for neither is

true nor real. First, this narrative supposes

30 that something springs from nothing, that matter pre-

cedes mind. Second, it supposes that mind enters matter,

PAGE 531

1 and matter becomes living, substantial, and intelligent.

The order of this allegory – the belief that everything

3 springs from dust instead of from Deity – has been main-

tained in all the subsequent forms of belief. This is the

error, – that mortal man starts materially, that non-

6 intelligence becomes intelligence, that mind and soul are

both right and wrong.

Higher hope

It is well that the upper portions of the brain represent

9 the higher moral sentiments, as if hope were ever prophe-

sying thus: The human mind will sometime

rise above all material and physical sense, ex-

12 changing it for spiritual perception, and exchanging hu-

man concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man

will recognize his God-given dominion and being.

Biological inventions

15 If, in the beginning, man’s body originated in non-

intelligent dust, and mind was afterwards put into body

by the creator, why is not this divine order

18 still maintained by God in perpetuating the

species? Who will say that minerals, vegetables, and

animals have a propagating property of their own?

21 Who dares to say either that God is in matter or that

matter exists without God? Has man sought out other

creative inventions, and so changed the method of his

24 Maker?

Which institutes Life, – matter or Mind? Does Life

begin with Mind or with matter? Is Life sustained by

27 matter or by Spirit? Certainly not by both, since flesh

wars against Spirit and the corporeal senses can take no

cognizance of Spirit. The mythologic theory of mate-

30 rial life at no point resembles the scientifically Christian

record of man as created by Mind in the image and like-

ness of God and having dominion over all the earth. Did

PAGE 532

1 God at first create one man unaided, – that is, Adam, –

but afterwards require the union of the two sexes in order

3 to create the rest of the human family? No! God makes

and governs all.

Progeny cursed

All human knowledge and material sense must be

6 gained from the five corporeal senses. Is this knowledge

safe, when eating its first fruits brought death?

“In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt

9 surely die,” was the prediction in the story under consid-

eration. Adam and his progeny were cursed, not blessed;

and this indicates that the divine Spirit, or Father, con-

12 demns material man and remands him to dust.

Genesis iii. 9, 10. And the Lord God [Jehovah] called

unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he

15 said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid,

because I was naked; and I hid myself.

Shame the effect of sin

Knowledge and pleasure, evolved through material

18 sense, produced the immediate fruits of fear and shame.

Ashamed before Truth, error shrank abashed

from the divine voice calling out to the cor-

21 poreal senses. Its summons may be thus paraphrased:

“Where art thou, man? Is Mind in matter? Is Mind

capable of error as well as of truth, of evil as well as of

24 good, when God is All and He is Mind and there is but

one God, hence one Mind?”

Fear comes of error

Fear was the first manifestation of the error of mate-

27 rial sense. Thus error began and will end the dream of

matter, In the allegory the body had been

naked, and Adam knew it not; but now error

30 demands that mind shall see and feel through matter, the

five senses. The first impression material man had of

PAGE 533

1 himself was one of nakedness and shame. Had he lost

man’s rich inheritance and God’s behest, dominion over

3 all the earth? No! This had never been bestowed on

Adam.

Genesis iii. 11, 12. And He said, Who told thee that

6 thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I

commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man

said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave

9 me of the tree, and I did eat.

The beguiling first lie

Here there is an attempt to trace all human errors

directly or indirectly to God, or good, as if He were the

12 creator of evil. The allegory shows that the

snake-talker utters the first voluble lie, which

beguiles the woman and demoralizes the man. Adam,

15 alias mortal error, charges God and woman with his own

dereliction, saying, “The woman, whom Thou gavest

me, is responsible.” According to this belief, the rib taken

18 from Adam’s side has grown into an evil mind, named

woman, who aids man to make sinners more rapidly than

he can alone. Is this an help meet for man?

21 Materiality, so obnoxious to God, is already found in the

rapid deterioration of the bone and flesh which came from

Adam to form Eve. The belief in material life and in-

24 telligence is growing worse at every step, but error has its

suppositional day and multiplies until the end thereof.

False womanhood

Truth, cross-questioning man as to His knowledge of

27 error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She

says, ” The serpent beguiled me, and I did

eat;” as much as to say in meek penitence,

30 “Neither man nor God shall father my fault.” She has

already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence

PAGE 534

1 she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of

man and to discern spiritual creation. This hereafter

3 enabled woman to be the mother of Jesus and to behold

at the sepulchre the risen Saviour, who was soon to mani-

fest the deathless man of God’s creating. This enabled

6 woman to be first to interpret the Scriptures in their true

sense, which reveals the spiritual origin of man.

Genesis iii. 14, 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said

9 unto the serpent, . . . I will put enmity between thee and

the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall

bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Spirit and flesh

12 This prophecy has been fulfilled. The Son of the Virgin-

mother unfolded the remedy for Adam, or error; and the

Apostle Paul explains this warfare between the

15 idea of divine power, which Jesus presented,

and mythological material intelligence called energy and

opposed to Spirit.

18 Paul says in his epistle to the Romans: “The carnal

mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the

law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that

21 are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the

flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell

in you.”

Bruising sin’s head

24 There will be greater mental opposition to the spirit-

ual, scientific meaning of the Scriptures than there has

ever been since the Christian era began. The

27 serpent, material sense, will bite the heel of

the woman, – will struggle to destroy the spiritual idea

of Love; and the woman, this idea, will bruise the head

30 of lust. The spiritual idea has given the understanding

PAGE 535

1 a foothold in Christian Science. The seed of Truth and

the seed of error, of belief and of understanding, – yea,

3 the seed of Spirit and the seed of matter, – are the wheat

and tares which time will separate, the one to be burned,

the other to be garnered into heavenly places.

6 Genesis iii. 16. Unto the woman He said, I will greatly

multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou

shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy

9 husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Judgment on error

Divine Science deals its chief blow at the supposed ma-

terial foundations of life and intelligence. It dooms idol-

12 atry. A belief in other gods, other creators,

and other creations must go down before Chris-

tian Science. It unveils the results of sin as shown in

15 sickness and death. When will man pass through the

open gate of Christian Science into the heaven of Soul,

into the heritage of the first born among men? Truth is

18 indeed ” the way.”

Genesis iii. 17-19. And unto Adam He said, Because

thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast

21 eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou

shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in

sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns

24 also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt

eat the herb of the field: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou

eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it

27 wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt

thou return.

New earth and no more sea

In the first chapter of Genesis we read: “And God

30 called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together

PAGE 536

1 of the waters called He Seas.” In the Apocalypse it is

written: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for

3 the first heaven and the first earth were passed

away; and there was no more sea.” In St.

John’s vision, heaven and earth stand for spir-

6 itual ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed

human concepts advancing and receding, is represented

as having passed away. The divine understanding reigns,

9 is all and there is no other consciousness.

The fall of error

The way of error is awful to contemplate. The illu-

sion of sin is without hope or God. If man’s spiritual

12 gravitation and attraction to one Father, in

whom we ” live, and move, and have our be-

ing,” should be lost, and if man should be governed by

15 corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead

of by Soul, man would be annihilated. Created by flesh

instead of by Spirit, starting from matter instead of from

18 God, mortal man would be governed by himself. The

blind leading the blind, both would fall.

True attainment

Passions and appetites must end in pain. They are

21 “of few days, and full of trouble.” Their supposed joys

are cheats. Their narrow limits belittle their gratifica-

tions, and hedge about their achievements with thorns.

24 Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material concep-

tion of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the

immortal side. Through toil, struggle, and sor-

27 row, what do mortals attain? They give up

their belief in perishable life and happiness; the mortal

and material return to dust, and the immortal is reached.

30 Genesis iii. 22-24. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said,

Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good

PAGE 537

1 and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take

also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore

3 the Lord God [Jehovah] sent him forth from the garden

of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east

6 of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword

which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of

life.

Justice and recompense

9 A knowledge of evil was never the essence of divin-

ity or manhood. In the first chapter of Genesis, evil

has no local habitation nor name. Crea-

12 tion is there represented as spiritual, entire,

and good. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he

also reap.” Error excludes itself from harmony. Sin

15 is its own punishment. Truth guards the gateway

to harmony. Error tills its own barren soil and buries

itself in the ground, since ground and dust stand for

18 nothingness.

Inspired interpretation

No one can reasonably doubt that the purpose of this

allegory – this second account in Genesis – is to depict

21 the falsity of error and the effects of error.

Subsequent Bible revelation is coordinate

with the Science of creation recorded in the

24 first chapter of Genesis. Inspired writers interpret the

Word spiritually, while the ordinary historian interprets

it literally. Literally taken, the text is made to appear

27 contradictory in some places, and divine Love, which

blessed the earth and gave it to man for a possession, is

represented as changeable. The literal meaning would

30 imply that God withheld from man the opportunity to

reform, lest man should improve it and become better;

but this is not the nature of God, who is Love always, –

PAGE 538

1 Love infinitely wise and altogether lovely, who “seeketh

not her own.”

Spiritual gateway

3 Truth should, and does, drive error out of all selfhood.

Truth is a two-edged sword, guarding and guiding.

Truth places the cherub wisdom at the gate

6 of understanding to note the proper guests.

Radiant with mercy and justice, the sword of Truth

gleams afar and indicates the infinite distance between

9 Truth and error, between the material and spiritual, –

the unreal and the real.

Contrasted testimony

The sun, giving light and heat to the earth, is a figure

12 of divine Life and Love, enlightening and sustaining the

universe. The “tree of life” is significant of

eternal reality or being. The “tree of knowl-

15 edge” typifies unreality. The testimony of the serpent is

significant of the illusion of error, of the false claims that

misrepresent God, good. Sin, sickness, and death have

18 no record in the Elohistic introduction of Genesis, in which

God creates the heavens, earth, and man. Until that

which contradicts the truth of being enters into the arena,

21 evil has no history, and evil is brought into view only as

the unreal in contradistinction to the real and eternal.

Genesis iv. 1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she

24 conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man

from the Lord [Jehovah].

Erroneous conception

This account is given, not of immortal man, but of mor-

27 tal man, and of sin which is temporal. As both mortal

man and sin have a beginning, they must

consequently have an end, while the sinless,

30 real man is eternal. Eve’s declaration, “I have gotten

a man from the Lord,” supposes God to be the author

PAGE 539

1 of sin and sin’s progeny. This false sense of existence

is fratricidal. In the words of Jesus, it (evil, devil) is

3 “a murderer from the beginning.” Error begins by

reckoning life as separate from Spirit, thus sapping the

foundations of immortality, as if life and immortality

6 were something which matter can both give and take

away.

Only one standard

What can be the standard of good, of Spirit, of Life,

9 or of Truth, if they produce their opposites, such as evil,

matter, error, and death? God could never

impart an element of evil, and man possesses

12 nothing which he has not derived from God. How then

has man a basis for wrong-doing? Whence does he

obtain the propensity or power to do evil? Has Spirit

15 resigned to matter the government of the universe?

A type of falsehood

The Scriptures declare that God condemned this lie as

to man’s origin and character by condemning its symbol,

18 the serpent, to grovel beneath all the beasts

of the field. It is false to say that Truth and

error commingle in creation. In parable and argument,

21 this falsity is exposed by our Master as self-evidently

wrong. Disputing these points with the Pharisees and

arguing for the Science of creation, Jesus said: “Do men

24 gather grapes of thorns?” Paul asked: “What com-

munion hath light with darkness? And what concord

hath Christ with Belial?”

Scientific offspring

27 The divine origin of Jesus gave him more than human

power to expound the facts of creation, and demonstrate

the one Mind which makes and governs man

30 and the universe. The Science of creation,

so conspicuous in the birth of Jesus inspired his wisest

and least-understood sayings, and was the basis of his

PAGE 540

1 marvellous demonstrations. Christ is the offspring of

Spirit, and spiritual existence shows that Spirit creates

3 neither a wicked nor a mortal man, lapsing into sin, sick-

ness, and death.

Cleansing upheaval

In Isaiah we read: “I make peace, and create evil. I

6 the Lord do all these things;” but the prophet referred to

divine law as stirring up the belief in evil to its

utmost, when bringing it to the surface and re-

9 ducing it to its common denominator, nothingness. The

muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the

stream. In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms

12 of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our igno-

rance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought

to know that God’s law uncovers so-called sin and its

15 effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil

and all power to sin.

Allegiance to Spirit

Science renders “unto Caesar the things which are

18 Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” It

saith to the human sense of sin, sickness, and

death, “God never made you, and you are a

21 false sense which hath no knowledge of God.” The pur-

pose of the Hebrew allegory, representing error as assum-

ing a divine character, is to teach mortals never to believe

24 a lie.

Genesis iv. 3, 4. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground

an offering unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And Abel, he also

27 brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.

Spiritual and material

Cain is the type of mortal and material man, conceived

in sin and “shapen in iniquity;” he is not the

30 type of Truth and Love. Material in origin

and sense, he brings a material offering to God. Abel

PAGE 541

1 takes his offering from the firstlings of the flock. A lamb

is a more animate form of existence, and more nearly re-

3 sembles a mind-offering than does Cain’s fruit. Jealous

of his brother’s gift, Cain seeks Abel’s life, instead of mak-

ing his own gift a higher tribute to the Most High.

6 Genesis iv. 4, 5. And the Lord [Jehovah] had respect

unto Abel, and to his offering: but unto Cain, and to his

offering, He had not respect.

9 Had God more respect for the homage bestowed through

a gentle animal than for the worship expressed by Cain’s

fruit? No; but the lamb was a more spiritual type of

12 even the human concept of Love than the herbs of the

ground could be.

Genesis iv. 8. Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and

15 slew him.

The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelli-

gence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood

18 of man at the very outset.

Genesis iv. 9. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Cain,

Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am

21 I my brother’s keeper?

Brotherhood repudiated

Here the serpentine lie invents new forms. At first it

usurps divine power. It is supposed to say

24 in the first instance, “Ye shall be as gods.”

Now it repudiates even the human duty of man towards

his brother.

27 Genesis iv. 10, 11. And He [Jehovah] said, . . . The

voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground.

And now art thou cursed from the earth.

PAGE 542

Murder brings its curse

1 The belief of life in matter sins at every step. It in-

curs divine displeasure, and it would kill Jesus that it

3 might be rid of troublesome Truth. Material

beliefs would slay the spiritual idea when-

ever and wherever it appears. Though error hides

6 behind a lie and excuses guilt, error cannot forever be

concealed. Truth, through her eternal laws, unveils

error. Truth causes sin to betray itself, and sets upon

9 error the mark of the beast. Even the disposition to

excuse guilt or to conceal it is punished. The avoidance

of justice and the denial of truth tend to perpetuate sin,

12 invoke crime, jeopardize self-control, and mock divine

mercy.

Genesis iv. 15. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him

15 Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken

on him sevenfold. And the Lord [Jehovah] set a mark

upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

Retribution and remorse

18 “They that take the sword shall perish with the

sword.” Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God’s

own way, and let human justice pattern the

21 divine. Sin will receive its full penalty, both

for what it is and for what it does. Justice marks

the sinner, and teaches mortals not to remove the

24 waymarks of God. To envy’s own hell, justice con-

signs the lie which, to advance itself, breaks God’s

commandments.

27 Genesis iv. 16. And Cain went out from the presence of

the Lord [Jehovah], and dwelt in the land of Nod.

Climax of suffering

The sinful misconception of Life as something less

PAGE 543

1 than God, having no truth to support it, falls back upon

itself. This error, after reaching the climax of suffering,

3 yields to Truth and returns to dust; but it

is only mortal man and not the real man,

who dies. The image of Spirit cannot be effaced, since it

6 is the idea of Truth and changes not, but becomes more

beautifully apparent at error’s demise.

Dwelling in dreamland

In divine Science, the material man is shut out from

9 the presence of God. The five corporeal senses cannot

take cognizance of Spirit. They cannot come

into His presence, and must dwell in dream-

12 land, until mortals arrive at the understanding that ma-

terial life, with all its sin, sickness, and death, is an illu-

sion, against which divine Science is engaged in a warfare

15 of extermination. The great verities of existence are

never excluded by falsity.

Man springs from Mind

All error proceeds from the evidence before the mate-

18 rial senses. If man is material and originates in an

egg, who shall say that he is not primarily

dust? May not Darwin be right in think-

21 ing that apehood preceded mortal manhood? Minerals

and vegetables are found, according to divine Science,

to be the creations of erroneous thought, not of matter.

24 Did man, whom God created with a word, originate

in an egg? When Spirit made all, did it leave aught

for matter to create? Ideas of Truth alone are reflected

27 in the myriad manifestations of Life, and thus it is

seen that man springs solely from Mind. The belief

that matter supports life would make Life, or God,

30 mortal.

Material inception

The text, “In the day that the Lord God [Jehovah

God] made the earth and the heavens,” introduces the

PAGE 544

1 record of a material creation which followed the spiritual,

– a creation so wholly apart from God’s, that Spirit

3 had no participation in it. In God’s creation

ideas became productive, obedient to Mind.

There was no rain and “not a man to till the ground.”

6 Mind, instead of matter, being the producer, Life was

self-sustained. Birth, decay, and death arise from the

material sense of things, not from the spiritual, for in

9 the latter Life consisteth not of the things which a man

eateth. Matter cannot change the eternal fact that

man exists because God exists. Nothing is new to the

12 infinite Mind.

First evil suggestion

In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does

matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might

15 or right or wisdom to create or to destroy.

All is under the control of the one Mind,

even God. The first statement about evil, – the first

18 suggestion of more than the one Mind, – is in the fable

of the serpent. The facts of creation, as previously re-

corded, include nothing of the kind.

Material personality

21 The serpent is supposed to say, “Ye shall be as gods,”

but these gods must be evolved from materiality and be

the very antipodes of immortal and spiritual

24 being. Man is the likeness of Spirit, but a

material personality is not this likeness. Therefore man,

in this allegory, is neither a lesser god nor the image and

27 likeness of the one God.

Material, erroneous belief reverses understanding and

truth. It declares mind to be in and of matter, so-called

30 mortal life to be Life, infinity to enter man’s nostrils

so that matter becomes spiritual. Error begins with

corporeality as the producer instead of divine Prin-

PAGE 545

1 ciple, and explains Deity through mortal and finite con-

ceptions.

3 “Behold, the man is become as one of us.” This could

not be the utterance of Truth or Science, for according

to the record, material man was fast degenerating and

6 never had been divinely conceived.

Mental tillage

The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means

this, – that mortals should so improve material belief

9 by thought tending spiritually upward as to

destroy materiality. Man, created by God,

was given dominion over the whole earth. The notion

12 of a material universe is utterly opposed to the theory

of man as evolved from Mind. Such fundamental errors

send falsity into all human doctrines and conclusions,

15 and do not accord infinity to Deity. Error tills the

whole ground in this material theory, which is entirely a

false view, destructive to existence and happiness. Out-

18 side of Christian Science all is vague and hypothetical, the

opposite of Truth; yet this opposite, in its false view of

God and man, impudently demands a blessing.

Erroneous standpoint

21 The translators of this record of scientific creation

entertained a false sense of being. They believed in

the existence of matter, its propagation and

24 power. From that standpoint of error, they

could not apprehend the nature and operation of Spirit.

Hence the seeming contradiction in that Scripture, which

27 is so glorious in its spiritual signification. Truth has

but one reply to all error, – to sin, sickness, and death:

“Dust [nothingness] thou art, and unto dust [nothingness]

30 shalt thou return.”

Mortality mythical

“As in Adam [error] all die, even so in Christ [Truth]

shall all be made alive.” The mortality of man is a

PAGE 546

1 myth, for man is immortal. The false belief that spirit is

now submerged in matter, at some future time to be eman-

3 cipated from it, – this belief alone is mortal.

Spirit, God, never germinates, but is “the same

yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” If Mind, God, cre-

6 ates error, that error must exist in the divine Mind, and

this assumption of error would dethrone the perfection

of Deity.

No truth from a material basis

9 Is Christian Science contradictory? Is the divine

Principle of creation misstated? Has God no Science to

declare Mind, while matter is governed by un-

12 erring intelligence? “There went up a mist

from the earth.” This represents error as

starting from an idea of good on a material basis. It

15 supposes God and man to be manifested only through

the corporeal senses, although the material senses can

take no cognizance of Spirit or the spiritual idea.

18 Genesis and the Apocalypse seem more obscure than

other portions of the Scripture, because they cannot

possibly be interpreted from a material standpoint. To

21 the author, they are transparent, for they contain the deep

divinity of the Bible.

Dawning of spiritual facts

Christian Science is dawning upon a material age.

24 The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, shine

in the darkness, though the darkness, com-

prehending them not, may deny their reality.

27 The proof that the system stated in this book is Chris-

tianly scientific resides in the good this system accom-

plishes, for it cures on a divine demonstrable Principle

30 which all may understand.

Proof given in healing

If mathematics should present a thousand different

examples of one rule, the proving of one example would

PAGE 547

1 authenticate all the others. A simple statement of Chris-

tian Science, if demonstrated by healing, contains the

3 proof of all here said of Christian Science. If

one of the statements in this book is true, every

one must be true, for not one departs from the stated sys-

6 tem and rule. You can prove for yourself, dear reader,

the Science of healing, and so ascertain if the author has

given you the correct interpretation of Scripture.

Embryonic evolution

9 The late Louis Agassiz, by his microscopic examination

of a vulture’s ovum, strengthens the thinker’s conclusions

as to the scientific theory of creation. Agassiz

12 was able to see in the egg the earth’s atmos-

phere, the gathering clouds, the moon and stars, while the

germinating speck of so-called embryonic life seemed a

15 small sun. In its history of mortality, Darwin’s theory

of evolution from a material basis is more consistent than

most theories. Briefly, this is Darwin’s theory, – that

18 Mind produces its opposite, matter, and endues matter

with power to recreate the universe, including man. Ma-

terial evolution implies that the great First Cause must

21 become material, and afterwards must either return to

Mind or go down into dust and nothingness.

True theory of the universe

The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to

24 have them understood spiritually, for only by this under-

standing can truth be gained. The true the-

ory of the universe, including man, is not in

27 material history but in spiritual development.

Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and

mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and

30 immortal.

Scriptural perception

It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts

humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith.

PAGE 548

1 “The Spirit and the bride say, Come! . . . and whoso-

ever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Christian

3 Science separates error from truth, and breathes

through the sacred pages the spiritual sense of

life, substance, and intelligence. In this Science, we dis-

6 cover man in the image and likeness of God. We see that

man has never lost his spiritual estate and his eternal

harmony.

The clouds dissolving

9 How little light or heat reach our earth when clouds

cover the sun’s face! So Christian Science can be seen

only as the clouds of corporeal sense roll away.

12 Earth has little light or joy for mortals before

Life is spiritually learned. Every agony of mortal error

helps error to destroy error, and so aids the apprehension

15 of immortal Truth. This is the new birth going on

hourly, by which men may entertain angels, the true

ideas of God, the spiritual sense of being.

Prediction of a naturalist

18 Speaking of the origin of mortals, a famous naturalist

says: “It is very possible that many general statements

now current, about birth and generation, will

21 be changed with the progress of information.”

Had the naturalist, through his tireless researches, gained

the diviner side in Christian Science, – so far apart from

24 his material sense of animal growth and organization, –

he would have blessed the human race more abundantly.

Methods of reproduction

Natural history is richly endowed by the labors and

27 genius of great men. Modern discoveries have brought

to light important facts in regard to so-called

embryonic life. Agassiz declares (“Methods

30 of Study in Natural History,” page

275): “Certain ani-

mals, besides the ordinary process of generation, also

increase their numbers naturally and constantly by self-

PAGE 549

1 division.” This discovery is corroborative of the Science

of Mind, for this discovery shows that the multiplication

3 of certain animals takes place apart from sexual condi-

tions. The supposition that life germinates in eggs and

must decay after it has grown to maturity, if not before,

6 is shown by divine metaphysics to be a mistake, – a

blunder which will finally give place to higher theories

and demonstrations.

The three processes

9 Creatures of lower forms of organism are supposed

to have, as classes, three different methods of reproduc-

tion and to multiply their species sometimes

12 through eggs, sometimes through buds, and

sometimes through self-division. According to recent

lore, successive generations do not begin with the birth of

15 new individuals, or personalities, but with the formation

of the nucleus, or egg, from which one or more individu-

alities subsequently emerge; and we must therefore look

18 upon the simple ovum as the germ, the starting-point, of

the most complicated corporeal structures, including those

which we call human. Here these material researches

21 culminate in such vague hypotheses as must necessarily

attend false systems, which rely upon physics and are de-

void of metaphysics.

Deference to material law

24 In one instance a celebrated naturalist, Agassiz, dis-

covers the pathway leading to divine Science, and beards

the lion of materialism in its den. At that

27 point, however, even this great observer mis-

takes nature, forsakes Spirit as the divine origin of

creative Truth, and allows matter and material law to

30 usurp the prerogatives of omnipotence. He absolutely

drops from his summit, coming down to a belief in the

material origin of man, for he virtually affirms that

PAGE 550

1 the germ of humanity is in a circumscribed and non-

intelligent egg.

Deep-reaching interrogations

3 If this be so, whence cometh Life, or Mind, to the

human race? Matter surely does not possess Mind.

God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms

6 and preserves the individuality and identity

of animals as well as of men. God cannot

become finite, and be limited within material bounds.

9 Spirit cannot become matter, nor can Spirit be developed

through its opposite. Of what avail is it to investigate

what is miscalled material life, which ends, even as it be-

12 gins, in nameless nothingness? The true sense of being

and its eternal perfection should appear now, even as it

will hereafter.

Stages of existence

15 Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The

continual contemplation of existence as material and cor-

poreal – as beginning and ending, and with

18 birth, decay, and dissolution as its component

stages – hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes

our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting-

21 point whatsoever, then the great I AM is a myth. If Life

is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embry-

onic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for

24 Deity.

Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro-

ducing its opposite. A serpent never begets a bird, nor

27 does a lion bring forth a lamb. Amalgamation is deemed

monstrous and is seldom fruitful, but it is not so hideous

and absurd as the supposition that Spirit – the pure and

30 holy, the immutable and immortal – can originate the

impure and mortal and dwell in it. As Christian Science

repudiates self-evident impossibilities, the material senses

PAGE 551

1 must father these absurdities, for both the material senses

and their reports are unnatural, impossible, and unreal.

The real producer

3 Either Mind produces, or it is produced. If Mind is

first, it cannot produce its opposite in quality and quantity,

called matter. If matter is first, it cannot pro-

6 duce Mind. Like produces like. In natural

history, the bird is not the product of a beast. In spiritual

history, matter is not the progenitor of Mind.

The ascent of species

9 One distinguished naturalist argues that mortals spring

from eggs and in races. Mr. Darwin admits this, but he

adds that mankind has ascended through all

12 the lower grades of existence. Evolution de-

scribes the gradations of human belief, but it does not

acknowledge the method of divine Mind, nor see that ma-

15 terial methods are impossible in divine Science and that

all Science is of God, not of man.

Transmitted peculiarities

Naturalists ask: “What can there be, of a material

18 nature, transmitted through these bodies called eggs, –

themselves composed of the simplest material

elements, – by which all peculiarities of an-

21 cestry, belonging to either sex, are brought down from

generation to generation?” The question of the natu-

ralist amounts to this: How can matter originate or trans-

24 mit mind? We answer that it cannot. Darkness and

doubt encompass thought, so long as it bases creation on

materiality. From a material standpoint, “Canst thou

27 by searching find out God?” All must be Mind, or

else all must be matter. Neither can produce the other.

Mind is immortal; but error declares that the material

30 seed must decay in order to propagate its species, and

the resulting germ is doomed to the same routine.

Causation not in matter

The ancient and hypothetical question, Which is first,

PAGE 552

1 the egg or the bird? is answered, if the egg produces the

parent. But we cannot stop here. Another question

3 follows: Who or what produces the parent of

the egg? That the earth was hatched from the

“egg of night” was once an accepted theory. Heathen

6 philosophy, modern geology, and all other material hy-

potheses deal with causation as contingent on matter

and as necessarily apparent to the corporeal senses, even

9 where the proof requisite to sustain this assumption is un-

discovered. Mortal theories make friends of sin, sickness,

and death; whereas the spiritual scientific facts of exist-

12 ence include no member of this dolorous and fatal triad.

Emergence of mortals

Human experience in mortal life, which starts from an

egg, corresponds with that of Job, when he says, “Man

15 that is born of a woman is of few days, and

full of trouble.” Mortals must emerge from

this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck

18 open their shells with Christian Science, and look outward

and upward. But thought, loosened from a material

basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild

21 with freedom and so be self-contradictory.

Persistence of species

From a material source flows no remedy for sorrow,

sin, and death, for the redeeming power, from the ills

24 they occasion, is not in egg nor in dust. The

blending tints of leaf and flower show the

order of matter to be the order of mortal mind. The

27 intermixture of different species, urged to its utmost

limits, results in a return to the original species. Thus

it is learned that matter is a manifestation of mortal

30 mind, and that matter always surrenders its claims when

the perfect and eternal Mind is understood.

Better basis than embryology

Naturalists describe the origin of mortal and material

PAGE 553

1 existence in the various forms of embryology, and ac-

company their descriptions with important observations,

3 which should awaken thought to a higher and

purer contemplation of man’s origin. This

clearer consciousness must precede an under-

6 standing of the harmony of being. Mortal thought must

obtain a better basis, get nearer the truth of being, or

health will never be universal, and harmony will never

9 become the standard of man.

One of our ablest naturalists has said: “We have no

right to assume that individuals have grown or been

12 formed under circumstances which made material con-

ditions essential to their maintenance and reproduction,

or important to their origin and first introduction.”

15 Why, then, is the naturalist’s basis so materialistic,

and why are his deductions generally material?

All nativity in thought

Adam was created before Eve. In this instance, it is

18 seen that the maternal egg never brought forth Adam.

Eve was formed from Adam’s rib, not from a

foetal ovum. Whatever theory may be adopted

21 by general mortal thought to account for human origin,

that theory is sure to become the signal for the appear-

ance of its method in finite forms and operations. If con-

24 sentaneous human belief agrees upon an ovum as the

point of emergence for the human race, this potent belief

will immediately supersede the more ancient supersti-

27 tion about the creation from dust or from the rib of our

primeval father.

Being is immortal

You may say that mortals are formed before they

30 think or know aught of their origin, and you

may also ask how belief can affect a result

which precedes the development of that belief. It can

PAGE 554

1 only be replied, that Christian Science reveals what “eye

hath not seen,” – even the cause of all that exists, – for

3 the universe, inclusive of man, is as eternal as God, who

is its divine immortal Principle. There is no such thing

as mortality, nor are there properly any mortal beings,

6 because being is immortal, like Deity, – or, rather, being

and Deity are inseparable.

Our conscious development

Error is always error. It is no thing. Any statement

9 of life, following from a misconception of life, is errone-

ous, because it is destitute of any knowledge

of the so-called selfhood of life, destitute of

12 any knowledge of its origin or existence. The mortal

is unconscious of his foetal and infantile existence; but

as he grows up into another false claim, that of self-con-

15 scious matter, he learns to say, “I am somebody; but

who made me?” Error replies, “God made you.” The

first effort of error has been and is to impute to God the

18 creation of whatever is sinful and mortal; but infinite

Mind sets at naught such a mistaken belief.

Mendacity of error

Jesus defined this opposite of God and His creation

21 better than we can, when he said, “He is a liar, and the

father of it.” Jesus also said, “Have not I

chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”

24 This he said of Judas, one of Adam’s race. Jesus never

intimated that God made a devil, but he did say, “Ye

are of your father, the devil.” All these sayings were to

27 show that mind in matter is the author of itself, and is

simply a falsity and illusion.

Ailments of animals

It is the general belief that the lower animals are less

30 sickly than those possessing higher organiza-

tions, especially those of the human form.

This would indicate that there is less disease in propor-

PAGE 555

1 tion as the force of mortal mind is less pungent or sensi-

tive, and that health attends the absence of mortal mind.

3 A fair conclusion from this might be, that it is the human

belief, and not the divine arbitrament, which brings the

physical organism under the yoke of disease.

Ignorance the sign of error

6 An inquirer once said to the discoverer of Christian

Science: “I like your explanations of truth, but I do

not comprehend what you say about error.”

9 This is the nature of error. The mark of igno-

rance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor

can be understood. Error would have itself received as

12 mind, as if it were as real and God-created as truth; but

Christian Science attributes to error neither entity nor

power, because error is neither mind nor the outcome of

15 Mind.

The origin of divinity

Searching for the origin of man, who is the reflection

of God, is like inquiring into the origin of God, the self-

18 existent and eternal. Only impotent error

would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good

with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this

21 sham unity man, as if man were the offspring of both

Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Crea-

tion rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of

24 perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity,

when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught

that can become imperfect, that God bestows the power

27 to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our

great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized

manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in

30 death. Knowing that God was the Life of man, Jesus

was able to present himself unchanged after the cruci-

fixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be-

PAGE 556

1 lief in illusion or error. That which is real, is sustained

by Spirit.

Genera classified

3 Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mor-

tal and material concepts classified, and are supposed to

possess life and mind. These false beliefs

6 will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit

destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then

will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the for-

9 mer things will have passed away.

The Christian’s privilege

Mortal belief infolds the conditions of sin. Mortal

belief dies to live again in renewed forms, only to go out

12 at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be

gained by dying. Christian Science may ab-

sorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but

15 the Christian alone can fathom it. It is made known

most fully to him who understands best the divine Life.

Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come

18 from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is

darkness, but God’s creative mandate was, “Let there be

light.” In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions.

21 They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and

dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on

the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the

24 dream.

Ontology versus physiology

Ontology receives less attention than physiology. Why?

Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual

27 life before it cares to solve the problem of

being, hence the author’s experience; but when

that awakening comes, existence will be on a new stand-

30 point.

It is related that a father plunged his infant babe, only

a few hours old, into the water for several minutes, and

PAGE 557

1 repeated this operation daily, until the child could remain

under water twenty minutes, moving and playing with-

3 out harm, like a fish. Parents should remember this

and learn how to develop their children properly on dry

land.

The curse removed

6 Mind controls the birth-throes in the lower realms of

nature, where parturition is without suffering. Vege-

tables, minerals, and many animals suffer no

9 pain in multiplying; but human propagation

has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Sci-

ence reveals harmony as proportionately increasing as the

12 line of creation rises towards spiritual man, – towards

enlarged understanding and intelligence; but in the line

of the corporeal senses, the less a mortal knows of sin,

15 disease, and mortality, the better for him, – the less pain

and sorrow are his. When the mist of mortal mind evap-

orates, the curse will be removed which says to woman,

18 “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” Divine

Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of

Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as

21 never dying, but as coexistent with his creator.

Popular theology takes up the history of man as if he

began materially right, but immediately fell into mental

24 sin; whereas revealed religion proclaims the Science of

Mind and its formations as being in accordance with

the first chapter of the Old Testament, when God, Mind,

27 spake and it was done.

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